I have always been deeply inquisitive and a seeker, more of a listener than a talker, driven by a questioning mind that wants to understand why, and how. I was the consistently silent member of the classroom, every school report urging me to speak up more and contribute to discussions (with zero success). I had one particularly discerning teacher for my English A level studies who was the first to frame this reticence as a quality rather than a failing, and I will be eternally grateful to him for validating my quietness. Chairman of the Tibet society for many years, he was a practicing Buddhist who introduced me to the world of Eastern philosophy, which he wove into his literary teachings with artful humour and flair. I still have a copy of the Upanishads that he gifted to me, marking the beginning of a long and windy journey exploring Oriental wisdom, including four years of Mandarin study in Edinburgh and Taipei for my MA, and later a BSc in Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture.

My heritage is very mixed; in nationality I am part English, part Canadian and a smaller part Jamaican. I was born in Tehran, and have lived in Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, America and Taiwan, but now call London home with my husband and our two almost adult children, who have been my greatest teachers of all. I am endlessly fascinated by the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of whatever ‘health’ is, and consistently explore a multitude of practices in my endeavour to understand each of these, and their inter-dependence, to the greatest of my abilities.